StenderB

I didn't graduate in 4 years. I went to DeAnza CC for 1 year before moving to SLC in 2008. I accumulated that many hours because I've been a case manager for almost 2 years (since April 2011), always working full-time. At the time I submitted my application I had worked for ~91 weeks (rounded down) at 40 hrs/week = 3640 hrs. I've worked full-time all through undergrad and sometimes at multiple jobs (how else was I going to pay to live and go to school at the same time?). I wish I could have just not worked until I finished school but that wasn't in the cards for me. And 1 year of full-time work = 2080 hrs (40hrs x 52 wks/year). Most people just refer to a work year as "2000 hrs" because they account for holidays and such one might have off. In my workplace, I do not have holidays off. So, you can actually accumulate 3800 hrs in about 1 yr and 9ish months, or 95 weeks.

Oh! I had a friend that went to CSUEB and pretty sure she studied psych, too. I'm from San Jose but I moved to Salt Lake City, UT when I was 18 to get out of my parents' house so I graduated from the U of Utah last May in both Anthropology and Sociology.

Perhaps it's a good idea to start out at a place closer to the U and on the public transportation route and then if you get more comfortable and want something even more affordable take a look a little farther out. You can live in places like Midvale/Murray that have cheaper rent and still only be about 40 minutes away from the U by public transport. The buses are sometimes faster, too. As well, they just started a new shuttle system from the SL Central Station which is more towards West Salt Lake and the shuttle takes people straight to the U every 30 minutes to try to clear up congestion on the rail line to school. I lived at CedarCliff Apartments when I first came to the U and it's only 2 blocks from a TRAX station. Check them out. I don't know if prices have gone up or not there and if you find any living arrangements that you want me to take a look at I can do that for you, too. I remember the hardest part about moving was finding apartments but not really knowing how truly close (or far away) from public transport they actually were since I wasn't in SLC to know

Well... I only put in 3640 (though that's my current position and since then I've turned it in I've already worked another 120 hrs so hopefully they recognize that I'm still employed as a case manager even while waiting). ~sigh~ I did also put down another paid experience that wasn't direct social services experience but I tied it in my personal statement about why it was relevant to my experience and framed it in the context of it pushing me towards getting into social services to begin with so in total that would come to ~6100. I mean, the hard part is that experience is completely up to the committee to review it as relevant or not so eh, me and you are in the same boat, Twoone. Where did you get your undergrad degree from/in? And are you applying for either of the stipend programs?

I wish!! haha!! although I don't know if it's a good sign or not to hear early but while browsing forums I came across someone who got in LAST year and he was notified as of March 6th. Albeit he did turn his app in Jan. 6th but I'm wondering if we may only have just a couple more weeks left to wait! maybe....

For SJSU the person to get in touch with to check your application is Molly Marquez. Phone number and email found on their website She responds very quickly to emails as well.

I currently live in SLC still and graduated from the U in May '12. Having come from California, I don't actually think there's lots of ethnic food variety, but I think there's enough ingredients in stores that especially if you're a foreign student you'll be able to make your favorite dishes or hook up with some of the very small cultural clubs/festivals to find some good eats. I know some people who seek out vegan/vegetarian options and those do actually abound in SLC. For you, DRT23, many of the people from out of the country end up hooking up with others from their country and always seem to have a great time. SLC is good for exploring because it has really reasonable prices for rent (2bdr ~$6-800...studio ~$450)-- this also depends how close you are to the university (prices go up). You can live in a city that surrounds SLC and have a reasonable commute (20-30 min... again I'm from CA where "Reasonable" is 45 min. minimum so I enjoy how short the commute is here). Public transportation has exploded in the last 3 years servicing SLC all the way to 1 hr south to Provo and 1 hr north to Ogden and cities in between as well as branching out to the western cities like West Valley and and the new area, Daybreak. This is a good option when thinking about living a bit farther out from the U. The outdoors are gorgeous here. I never experienced snow until I moved to SLC and it was a ton of fun exploring snow activities like snowshoeing, skiiing and snowboarding (really not good at any of these except snowshoeing ). Social life is ok. Again I've found it's really only fun here if you have people to try it out with but that's just been my personal experience. I don't think people here are as nice as other places I've been but again that's an opinion. I came here thinking everyone MUST be nice because they're religious and family-oriented.... well, not for me.

You have plenty of significant experience! I wouldn't be worried if I were you. And an MSW is a practical/professional degree-- I haven't gotten into an MSW yet but I graduated with a B.S. in Anthropology and a B.S. in Sociology, not a BSW

I have a friend studying International Development at Lund University in Sweden. Check it out It's a good school and she is really enjoying the program.... well, as much as any busy grad student can

Where in Sweden are you all applying to? What programs, etc.? I'm quite nervous because applying to Swedish schools is such a different process from in the U.S. (in some respects easier, in some respects quite daunting). I should hopefully hear from the Swedish programs at the same time as the one U.S. school I applied to and can make a decision whether I'm going back to California or onwards to an adventure in Sweden!

trying to bump this thread to get some input from anyone! Also tried bumping the thread that was talking generally about the application process for the IV-E stipend program so if anyone stumbles on this and has some insight on writing for the application that would be helpful, too

I currently am a Case Manager with Volunteers of America and have been for just about 2 years. I case manage female homeless youth ages 16-20 that live in our transitional living facility. It's an 18-month program where they are either in school or working and we help with employment skills, life skills, therapy groups, and I also immediately put them on county housing lists. Teens are fun, but they're definitely a group that you either love or hate. I had to work all throughout my undergrad so my experience is mostly paid since I didn't have the time to be able to consistently volunteer (though I did and do still volunteer at different organizations at least once a month and many times WITH my residents so they can get a positive community experience). I'm finally going on an Alternative Spring Break trip w/ my alma mater in March though (they accept alumni) so I'm really really excited for that opportunity and to add it to my list of social service experiences

Please post if anyone applying to SJSU hears anything! I think I'm getting less anxious but the weekends are hard because I don't have work like I do during the week to be busy with. Sigh

I will be ecstatic when I get the first email or anything that finally changed from "Referred to Grad Dept". lol I guess unless it's bad news... but any news would be better than my run-around of checking MySJSU, then University Admissions of Sweden, then Yahoo! mail, then Gmail, then GradCafe haha -- it's vicious having to wait.

excellent to know!! I'll go ahead and give them a call just to check everything. Glad to know it doesn't take a lot of time because I was worried about it being a hassle for them to take phone calls. I also emailed Barry Goldman-Hall a while back about the SW app that was at the bottom of the page and never received a response.... weird thing with that was that I filled that in quite a while back (Nov-ish 2012) and got a confirmation email that it was received but the automated response hadn't been updated so it said something like, "confirming your application for the MSW 2011" Anyways, not terribly worried about that because I have the confirmation email so it's easily proven that it was sent in.

One of the things I really loved about the MSW program I applied to was the fact that it had (in the past) opportunities for seminars and study abroad options over summer in a few different countries. Has this also affected where you've applied? Are you in an MSW program currently and plan to take the opportunity for learning abroad or have already? I'm just curious to hear about your experiences

Thank you! That eases my mind a bit. I didn't want there to be some automated response confirmation or something that I didn't receive because of an error on my part. Phew

For those who applied to SJSU, did you receive any sort of confirmation email that your Section II items were received? It's making me a little nervous but another poster commented that they wouldn't even be looking at apps till mid-Feb according to their Social Work office so hoping that is why I've yet to have any confirmation....

bump! Hopefully anyone with answers can reply because I have the same questions.

Like others, glad I'm not the only one without a solid Plan B lol Although even compared with some of you, I still only applied to 1 program compared to the min. of what seems to be 4 ::YIKES:: The only state-side school I applied to was San Jose State because of its awesome MSW program coupled with potentially being able to live with my parents rent-free so I can stop worrying about that huge chunk of money every month while I'm working on a Master's. Working multiple jobs, paying bills, etc. while getting my bachelor degrees was stress enough. I did apply to 4 Swedish University programs as well though but only 1 wanted a letter of intent, the rest go on "quantity and quality of undergraduate studies" aka my transcripts... so that's slightly daunting not being able to add any personality to my academics which were at least good in and of themselves. My only "Plan B" is husband getting into a nursing program in Sweden where he won't have to pay tuition and then I will just go with, learn Swedish and apply to schools there again once I become a resident so I don't have to pay tuition either. We'll see what happens.... first round of notifications won't happen until March for both the Swedish schools AND SJSU.

phew, glad someone called because I was about to this week. I haven't received anything to even say they've received my Section II application (SJSU) but if they're not even beginning a review until the middle of Feb I feel like I can calm down just a little.... just a little.